Robotics Training Online Course Idea

[Arhowk]

I'm in strong discontentment with this idea. I would have never joined the team if I were required to take an online class before joining. I was never formally trained, I just learned by watching other people work and helping them whenever I needed it. Maybe it works better because our team is an overwhelming 8 students, but it is a much more natural and entertaining way to learn.

Just something to keep in mind. If a majority is still supporting the idea than go for it and let us know how well it works.

[iggy_gim]

Originally Posted by Arhowk

I'm in strong discontentment with this idea. I would have never joined the team if I were required to take an online class before joining. I was never formally trained, I just learned by watching other people work and helping them whenever I needed it. Maybe it works better because our team is an overwhelming 8 students, but it is a much more natural and entertaining way to learn.

Just something to keep in mind. If a majority is still supporting the idea than go for it and let us know how well it works.

I get where you are coming from, I learned from just watching and helping too. However, in my opinion, the watching and learning method is difficult as build season is rushed as it is. Adding learning to that process is why a lot of robots fail (I can speak for my team's particularly). This is not a tool to replace hands on learning but support it. So maybe you start by introducing prospective members to robotics with these videos so they have an idea of what they are supposed to do in the lab.

This sounds awesome and I would definitely be interested in contributing!

This was my rookie year and I would have loved to have something like this!

I agree, I wish that in my rookie year I knew some of the tricks and skills that I know now. I think this is a way for all teams to share their own tricks with everyone else to truly improve all of our robotics skills

[KohKohPuffs]

I learned CAD through Google Hangouts. The classes consisted of following along the instructor in what he was doing through screenshare. However, out of everyone who participated, I was the only one who continued on to designing decent gearboxes, drivetrains, etc.

Looking back on that, I'll have to go with Arhowk partially. This is because I had one idea on teaching CAD, and that was using a method one my physics class used, which was called "flipped teaching": basically, all the learning happens at home while hands-on and practice activities happen in the classroom. So for CAD, perhaps you can have new members watch online lectures on whatever, and when they come to the robotics room they go hands-on with the CAD software. That way they can get help and feedback from whoever is instructing the class.

Not entirely an online course, but something that involves hands-on activity like the idea I just put out will be more effective in my opinion.